Alice returns to Wonderland in a tale of pointless time travel that’s just about saved by Sacha Baron Cohen, and mercifully little of the Depp-Bonham axis of annoyance, says Colum Finnegan

The Tim Burton assembly line trundles on with two new effusions this year alone. Though only executive producer on this one, his style is so well defined at this point, actual hands-on involvement matters little – plus he has former partner Helena Bonham Carter and muse Johnny Depp on set to enforce the de riguer weirdness. The actual directorial reigns are grasped by Flight of the Conchords co-creator and Ali G right-hand man, James Bobin, and fittingly it is the comedy elements of this film that justify the trip to wonderland.

Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now a Victorian-age feminist, (and suspiciously resolute spurner of the opposite sex) returns from a thrilling voyage to China to find her nemesis Hamish Ascot has become the chairman of the company that sponsored her voyage. In an act of revenge he demotes Alice to the role of an office clerk, promising she’ll never ship out again. Alice, firebrand that she is, doesn’t like this one bit, so she sprints off to Hamish’s big house and finds a talking butterfly, and then in order to avoid being discovered talking to said butterfly, jumps into a mirror/portal to Wonderland.

Why didn’t she just put on a straight face and pretend she was talking to herself? As devices go this one is clunky and foreshadows the film’s general lack of convincing plot elements.

In Wonderland Alice finds out that things have not being going well since her last visit. The Mad Hatter is seriously depressed, so depressed in fact, he’s dying. It turns out Alice is the only one who can save him (it is absolutely crucial to save him, after all they’re old friends) by breaking into Times’s castle and getting his permission to travel back in time and change the past. A bit of friendly understanding and some chicken soup may have done the trick, but our Alice does love an adventure.

Mr. Time is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, the only really enjoyable performance in the piece. Seemingly modeled on a cranky, frustrated Werner Herzog, his Time and is largely the film’s comic foil. Naturally he isn’t too keen on old Alice going back in time to mess with its fabric, thereby potentially ending the world, but unperturbed our plucky heroine steals the ‘chronos sphere’ (kind of a handy pocket time machine that’s integral to the whole operation). That her theft jeopardises the future of Wonderland and is merely to save one (albeit charmingly) mad person is not something that seems to cross Alice’s mind. She just does it.

Alice proceeds to travel through time, all the while being chased by Mr. Time using a time machine that appears to be his own actual heart. She makes an increasing mess of things, until eventually she almost kills everyone.

The film is surprisingly poorly thought out, given that it was written by Linda Woolverton, the woman who brought us Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, yet despite its narrative shortcomings it’s an enjoyable watch. The visuals are sumptuous, Cohen’s character is genuinely comedic, and the Depp-Bonham axis of annoyance is mercifully given minimal screen time. Indeed Bobin’s direction manages to coax a more vulnerable and unusually human performance from Depp. Ultimately, the richness of Carroll’s original characters manage to gift this film with a heart that many other mainstream children’s films would do well to mirror.

Alice Through The Looking Glass is released nationwide today